


Five of the Force

by tablelamp



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Fusion, Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25272436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tablelamp/pseuds/tablelamp
Summary: People have heard of them all over the galaxy--they're known as the Five of the Force, and people believe that the Force is strong with all of them.That's not exactly true.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43
Collections: Alternate Universe Exchange 2020





	Five of the Force

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saiditallbefore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiditallbefore/gifts).



If you ask Nate Ford if he is one with the Force, he'll smile enigmatically at you. Unless you're a friend of his, expect that to be the only answer you get.

But if you are a friend of his, and very few are, he'll tell you the truth--that Maggie was always the one who was Force-sensitive. That she was the one who went very quiet and very still half an hour before Nate heard what had happened on that school trip to Alderaan. Nate hasn't trusted the Force since. He trusts his own mind, and sometimes he even questions that. He hadn't paid attention to the Empire. Why hadn't he paid attention to the Empire? If he had noticed, if he had planned, this wouldn't have happened.

No one will catch him without a plan again. Not ever.

Dubenich comes close, finding him in a disreputable cantina and asking for help. The Empire stole his plans for a new kind of fighter, and he wants them back. Surely Nate can help. Surely Nate would like to get his own small revenge for Alderaan.

Nate has to admit he would like that very much.

So he gets a team together, and they steal the plans. Except the story isn't exactly what Dubenich told them. Dubenich sells information security systems, and he planned to have them steal from the Empire so he can win the Empire as a customer. Dubenich assumed that, if he didn't kill them, the Empire would, so what did it matter?

Never mind. Even a con can become a mark if he stops paying close enough attention. And Dubenich does. Turns out the Empire doesn't like being shaken down for money. Who would've guessed?

Nate and his team don't always work against the Empire. There are plenty of other sources of corruption and greed to take down. But Nate doesn't hesitate to take cases that might offer the chance to take a little more away from the Empire, and then a little more.

His team isn't behind the attack that destroys the Death Star. Nate wishes they had been, but he wonders if maybe getting that close to Vader requires more of the Force than he has.

It's possible.

***

Eliot used to be one with the Force, sure. When he was a kid. A lot's happened since then.

Turns out you can't really do the things he did...live the life he lived...and stay one with the Force. It's distracting. It's painful. You can't do what you have to do if you're going around feeling everything all the time. So he'd shut it out. And though he doesn't live the same way now, he thinks that if he ever opened himself back up to the Force, all that he has caused to happen would rise in a huge tidal wave and drown him. Hardison thinks that's ridiculous, but Hardison doesn't really understand what Eliot's done.

Parker might. Eliot's not sure. Sometimes he catches her looking at him like she knows something, like she can see inside him. Maybe she can. But he's sure even she can't see all of it.

The Force can do without him. It's going to have to.

***

Even the others on the team think that the Force is strong in Sophie. Sophie smiles and gives away nothing. She has many strengths, you see. She's grifted her way from one end of the galaxy to another. There are a significant number of planets Sophie knows enough about to convince anyone that she was born and raised there, and a scattering more she can claim to have businesses on. (If there is one planet she almost never pretends to be from, she tries not to make it obvious enough that the others notice.)

Sophie's strength is detail. She can learn languages. She can learn accents. She can learn nuances of behavior in a thousand different cultures and never mix them up once. She can read the body language of a hundred different species. She can learn what motivates anyone, what direction to push to make sure they go where she wants them to. She can observe and replicate. She can cajole and plead and manipulate. That's not the Force.

The thing about Sophie is, Sophie doesn't need the Force. Everything she does, she does without it. She's seen any number of aspiring Jedi wave their hands in front of someone's face to try to influence them, and all it ever does is annoy that person. Sophie knows enough to know what skills she doesn't have, but what she does have is just as good. Her methods are effective, and not everyone could do what she does. Some of the Jedi couldn't. She's sure of that.

But let them think she has mystical powers. It's good for her reputation.

***

Hardison doesn't know if he's Force-sensitive, but he definitely has a way with computers. Does the Force have anything to do with that? There's talk that the pilot who destroyed the Death Star was a kid who let the Force guide his X-wing. That's the kind of Force Hardison would like to be in touch with.

Nana believes in the Force, and always has. She used to say, when Hardison was younger, that the Force was in everything and everybody, and that it would guide you if you listened to it. Hardison had taken her literally, and had spent the next week trying to find a quiet spot so that he could hear the Force talking to him. Nana had found him behind the curtains and had listened to his explanation and, to her credit, had never laughed at him for taking her words so seriously. She'd explained that the Force was more like your conscience, a feeling inside you suggesting 'you should do that' or 'don't do that.' He'd told her that he already had that kind of feeling inside him, and that it usually sounded like her. She'd laughed then and hugged him tight.

Sometimes Hardison wonders if Nana would've been a Jedi if she'd been born when they were everywhere. Sometimes he likes the idea, and sometimes he's glad that she's where she is in space and time. His Nana, with the Force all around her.

He hopes maybe a little of that rubbed off on him. He thinks it did.

***

When you can only trust yourself, you have to listen to and notice everything. It took Parker a long time to realize that not everybody could feel and see some of the things she could feel and see. She knows when someone is within two rooms of her, and she can tell whether they're moving closer or further away. If she forgets to concentrate on what she's doing, she can catch little snippets about who they are and what they're doing. People are so loud and disruptive. Sometimes it's easier being away from them.

Being a thief is the perfect job for Parker. You have to stay away from people. And money doesn't make you feel things. Money doesn't feel like anything at all.

It's challenging, being part of a team. Parker's a little reassured by the fact that none of them trust each other easily. If the others were trusting and Parker wasn't, she thinks she'd feel very far away from them. But they all have their broken pieces. The others think they're good at hiding them, but Parker sees.

Hardison says Parker uses the Force. Parker doesn't really know what that means, and the first time Hardison does a little hand wave and tells her it's a Jedi mind trick, Parker laughs so hard she almost sprains something. Hardison pretends to be offended but he isn't really. Parker can tell.

She's the first one to hear about their "Five of the Force" nickname, and tells the others. Nate is amused, Sophie's pleased, Hardison thinks it's the coolest thing ever, and Eliot grumbles about it. Something inside him hurts whenever the Force comes up. Parker doesn't understand why.

None of them feel the things she feels, not the way she does. But sometimes Hardison confirms that, yes, there is someone in the next room, nice catch, Parker, and sometimes Sophie confirms that yes, that Wookiee they just talked to was angry about something, and sometimes Eliot is between Parker and danger before Parker can warn him that there's danger, and sometimes Nate can use what she knows to bring all of them safely home.

That's not a word Parker has a lot of experience with, home--but she likes it.


End file.
